Julia Morris sets record straight on new I’m A Celebrity co-host Robert Irwin

As Julia Morris preps to front a new season of I’m A Celebrity with her new co-host Robert Irwin, there is one continually asked question she’s not a fan of.

When Robert Irwin linked up with long-running presenter Julia Morris to audition as co-host for I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! last year, the production team knew “within four seconds” he was the man for the job.

But when the 20-year-old Aussie wildlife warrior’s major new TV role was announced in October, critics and viewers wondered how his casting would influence Morris’ act – the series well known and loved for its spicy rapport between the stand-up comedian and former co-presenter Dr Chris Brown.

Journalists kept asking the same question, “Are you going to be flirting with Robert?”.

“That would be creepy,” Morris, 55, says on-set of the Channel 10 production in South Africa.

“It’s a question I got the whole way through the last four months.

“To be honest with you, we don’t really know what it [their shtick] is yet.

“And that’s why I keep saying to everybody, don’t put icing on the cake while it’s still in the oven, because it’s still growing, and it would be ready to go on television right now, but over the coming days, the rhythms just keep getting even more amazing.

“I don’t feel like I’m mothering over Robert. I feel like I’m evenly matched.”

Robert Irwin and Julia Morris co-host I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!

Morris with her former IAC co-host, Dr Chris Brown. Picture: Channel 9

Upon the hosts’ arrival on-set mid-March, Morris says “not even production knew what they had [with herself and Irwin].”

She explains how thorough content plans were in place for the duo to begin filming bits prior to the show’s premiere Sunday night.

Having known Irwin since he was a child, and growing their bond further over the past few months, Morris felt there wasn’t enough trust in their natural connection.

“Robert and I have been together for the last four months doing promo, doing press, and when we arrived on-set, there was a lot of things in place to go, ‘let’s try and work this out’ and ‘we’ll see if this works’ and ‘we’ll do this’,” she continues.

“And there’s so many rehearsals built in, and I just kept saying to everyone, ‘just come and spend five minutes in our company’.”

Irwin, who adds he and Morris are “protective of each other”, agrees the two are embracing finding their groove on the fly.

The pair have been busy banking TV and social media content, but will do the bulk of their work from the season 10 premiere on Sunday, thanks to a 24-hour turnaround for episodes to air.

“I think the best part of all of this is that everyone watching at home gets to come along on that ride. They get to find out what it is as we do,” Irwin says.

“We already know it’s solid, it’s perfect. It works from the get go. But as this all develops … I mean we haven’t gone live. We don’t know. And that’s the fun of a program like this. It’s all real.

“It is actually live. We are actually in the middle of nowhere with death-defying stuff going on.

“It is real. And the audience gets to see that raw, amazing camaraderie and friendship among these two hosts. It’s that sort of environment where we kind of build this new thing together.”

Robert Irwin and Julia Morris. Pic: Lucas Dawson Photography

Morris and Irwin, along with more than 100 crew members from Channel 10 and ITV, are currently based in South Africa, where they’ll be for the entirety of shooting.

Irwin is, of course, no stranger to television.

Born into Aussie wildlife royalty as the son of the late Steve Irwin and Terri, Irwin’s individual star has been rising for years, with various TV appearances including as a host on Discovery Kids Channel and a regular guest on US program Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon – his segments often going viral.

But I’m A Celebrity heralds his biggest side step to date, bringing a slight departure from the family business and marking the beginning of carving his own identity.

And while working in TV is a “dream come true”, Irwin is firm that everything he does aligns with his family’s conservation legacy.

“I have this path, this true north and this real mission and purpose behind what I do. And there’s so many different ways to carry on a legacy and to create your own,” he says.

“To be able to find ‘Robert’s’ way of doing that, that’s really fun. And I’ve found so many ways throughout my life, behind the camera, in front of the camera, but this is just this incredible new chapter, trying something that I’ve never done before.

“And that wildlife aspect is here … That’s where the fun really comes in life, sticking to your authentic goals and what really gives you that fire in your belly and that passion.

“This is also a great new audience to reach a conservation message in a very subtle way.”

Robert and Julia on-set in South Africa.

On that, Irwin believes language needs to change in respect to the more dangerous animals, and he hopes his involvement on a prime time TV series might influence that.

“The atmosphere [in South Africa] is celebrating all the animals, and Australia can take a page out of that book because often in Australia we go [muffled] ‘yeah, we got the crocs, we got the venomous snakes, but go look at the koala!’

“Whereas here we go, ‘lions, yeah they could kill you, but how cool are they?!’

“I think that’s a message that we can have around the world. Protecting the animals, even the dangerous ones, celebrating them instead of fearing them, we can go, how cool is it that hippos can run faster than anyone? That crocs have got 3000 pounds per square inch of jaw pressure. How awesome is that.”

I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! premieres Sunday March 24 at 7.30pm on Channel 10